Tweet
Electric Scotland News
The attempted assassination of President Trump took the headlines this week and have to say the secret service didn't do a very good job of looking after him and neither did the other security agencies. I have highlighted a video in our news section where an eye witness saw the shooter several minutes before he shot at the President.
---------
Some major weather events around the world this week. In Chatham we seem to have avoided them as usual :-)
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
Looking back to a time when a civic movement took forward Scotland’s cause
The Scottish Covenant is 75 years old this year
Read more at:
https://jackie125.substack.com/p/loo...e-when-a-civic
Incumbent on SNP to change after election defeat, says Kate Forbes
The deputy first minister said she does not believe there needs to be a change in party leadership.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/politics/incumbe...ys-kate-forbes
Donald Trump gunman identified as 20-year-old from Pennsylvania in major update
A 20-year-old man from Pennsylvania has been identified as the suspect in the Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sut9pcNvTUs
Trump at RNC: First public appearance since assassination attempt
With a bandage on his right ear, former President Trump arrived at Day 1 of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday. It's Trump's first public appearance since the attempted assassination two days earlier at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. There, Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, killing one person and injuring two others in addition to Trump. He was then killed by Secret Service personnel.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/r48yHkoEyTM?si=pAHyJtAmwjqzTJiF
Toronto reels from floods and power cuts after severe storms
Record rainfall from three huge storms has flooded parts of Toronto, cut power and left drivers stranded on the major motorway through the city.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4ypd11wr0o
Cave discovered on moon could be home for humans
Researchers said this is the first lunar tunnel to be discovered that could be accessible to humans.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/world/cave-disco...ome-for-humans
Scotland's best culinary concoctions from haggis pakora to tablet ice cream
Haggis pakora, Irn-Bru pulled pork and the legendary Macaroni pie are some of Scotland's most genius culinary creations
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...aggis-33257982
Flypast honour for RAF Victoria Cross hero aged 104
A flypast has honoured the bravery of Britain's last surviving Victoria Cross holder for air action in World War Two, who is now aged 104. Flight Lieutenant John Cruickshank earned the honour aged 24 for an attack on a German U-boat while piloting a Catalina flying boat.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/north/catalina-f...hn-cruickshank
The King's Speech at The State Opening of Parliament 2024
King Charles delivers a speech detailing Prime Minister Keir Starmer's plans for Britain at the State Opening of Parliament.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD7PdBoN8_o
Scottish and UK Governments 'failed citizens' during Covid, inquiry finds
The UK Covid Inquiry said there was a 'damaging absence of focus' on the measures and infrastructure needed to deal with a fast-spreading disease.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/scottis...-inquiry-finds
Drone trial to deliver mail between two remote Scottish islands
The trial will see postal workers loading and unloading mail on both sides for the first time.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/highlands-island...inner-hebrides
J.D. Vance addresses RNC crowd: FULL SPEECH
Donald Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, gave his first speech since he was picked for the Republican ticket. Vance discussed his humble beginnings and the importance of a Trump-Vance ticket for the future of the country.
You can watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYzXBA7zucI
Electric Canadian
Five Years Residence in the Canadas
Including a Tour through part of the United States of America in the Year 1823 by Edward Allen Talbot, Esq., of the Talbot Settlement, Upper Canada in two volumes (1824)
You can read this interesting account at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion.../fiveyears.htm
The Canadian Inspector No. 1
Containing a collection of facts concerning the Government of Sir George Prevost in the Canadas (1815) (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...Lande00092.pdf
The Canadas in 1841
By Sir Richard H. Bonnycastle, Lieutenant-colonel royal engineers, and Lieutenant-colonel in the Militia of Upper Canada in two volumes (1842)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/canadas1841.htm
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 14th day of July 2024 - Satisfaction & Contentment
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...on-contentment
The Beaver Magazine
Added Volume 1 No. 2 (1920) (pdf)
You can read this issue at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...vol1issue2.pdf
The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs
Added the 1937-38 edition
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...nual/index.htm
Canada's Part in the Great War
Issued by the Department of Public Information, Ottawa (1919) (pdf)
You can read this report at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/forc...re00cana_2.pdf
Electric Scotland
Journal of a Tour in the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland in 1800
By John Leyden, edited with a Bibliography, by James Sinton (1903) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...rinh00leyd.pdf
The Invertebrate Fauna of the Inland Waters of Scotland
Part III. By Thomas Scott, F.L.S. Loch Morar, Inverness-shire (1893) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/gardeni...naof04scot.pdf
Catalogue of Important Scottish Medals
Collected by the late R. M. Cochran-Patrick, LL.D., F.S.A., FSAScot., at one time Member of Parliament for North Ayrshire, and Under Secretary for Scotland [Sold by Order of Lady Kennedy Cochran-Patrick] to be auctioned on Tuesday, the 8th of November, 1949 (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/books/p...ttis00soth.pdf
An Index Drawn up about the Year 1629
Of many records of charters granted by the different Sovereigns of Scotland between the years 1309 and 1413, most of which records have been long missing with an Introduction giving a state, founded on authentic documents still preserved, of the Ancient Records of Scotland, which were in that Kingdom in the year 1292, to which are subjoined, indexes of the persons and places mentioned in those charters, alphabetically arranged, published at the desire of the Right Honourable Lord Frederick Campbell, Lord Clerk-Register of Scotland with a view to lead to a discovery of those records which are missing by William Robertson, Esq., one of the Deputies of the Lord Clerk-Register for keeping the records of Scotland (1798) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...abou00grea.pdf
The Scottish Mountaineering Club Guide
Ben Nevis edited by H. MacRobert (1920) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...g/bennevis.pdf
Tohoku, The Scotland of Japan
By Christopher Noss and Associates of the Tohoku Mission (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history/japan/Tohoku.pdf
Scottish Society of Louisville
Got up their June and July 2024 newsletters.
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/familyt...ille/index.htm
Robert Duncan MacIntyre
Professional Golfer
Did a feature page about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...-macintyre.htm
Reminiscences of Glasgow
And the West of Scotland by Peter MacKenzie in three volumes
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...sofglasgow.htm
Reunion
A Voice from Scotland by The Very Reverend James Cooper, D.D., D.C.L., Hon. Litt.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Glasgow; Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1917 (1918) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/r...from00coop.pdf
Scotland leads rest of UK in attracting youngsters to vital science, tech, engineering, maths (STEM) skills
Scotland's continued struggle (along with virtually the rest of the planet) to plug skills shortages in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has been given a timely boost by a group of teens who beat off stiff competition from hundreds of their peers to lift the UK's leading Junior Engineering Award. Article by Bill Magee.
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/magee/article0013.htm
Five acres and independence
A Practical Guide to the Selection and Management of the Small Farm by M. G. Kains, B.S , M.S., Special Crop Culturist, U S Department of Agriculture, Formerly Head of Horticulture Department, Pennsylvania State College, Hornculture, Agriculture and Botany Editor, New International Encyclopedia, Garden Editor Pictorial Review and other National Magazines, Lecturer on Horticulture, Columbia University, Author of Modern Guide to Successful Gardening, Plant Propagation, Principles and Practice of Pruning Culinary Herbs, etc, etc., New and Enlarged Edition. (1935) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...dence_text.pdf
A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland
Including the Isle of Man comprising an account of their geological structure with remarks on their agriculture, scenery, and antiquities by John MacCulloch, M. D. in three volumes (1819)
You can read these volumes at:
https://electricscotland.com/books/pdf/martin.htm
The history of the troubles and memorable transactions in Scotland and England
From 1624 to 1645 in two volumes by John Spalding (1827)
You can read these volumes at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...oftroubles.htm
Observations on Several Parts of Great Britain
Particularly the Highlands of Scotland relative chiefly to picturesque beauty made in the year 1776 By William Gilpin, A. M., Prebendary of Salisbury; and Vicar of Boldre in New Forest, near Lymington in two volumes (second edition) (1792) (pdf) Also including The Life of William Baker with his funeral sermon by the Rev. Mr. Gilpin (1795) (pdf) Found a new edition of this publication which is in colour and is a third edition and so have replaced the older edition with this one.
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifestyle/Gilpin.htm
Story
GLENCOE
By Levenside the frost whitened the grasses down to the water’s edge, where a thin cover of ice crackled in the tide. A cold wind was beginning to pipe through the bare bushes, and heavy snow clouds gathered on the Ardgour hills. The waters were black, and Waveless; and desolation was on all the sad countryside.
Far up the glen a thin smoke rose, uncanny. It was not the homely peat smoke that puts one in mind of warm hearthsides and friendly converse round the embers; but a black, urspy, dying thing, that hovered like evil ghosts over the ending of a wicked life. To the woman hurrying from the coming storm to her home there, the sight of it brought shuddering fear; the fear that comes even on strong men, and is stronger than the greatest of them. Mairi crossed herself, and her lips muttered the priest’s prayer; she cast a look about her as though she might see something. And then on the cold breath of the wind came a friendly and human sound—the sound of piping; but as it neared it brought little comfort to the woman. The fright left her indeed, but instead came a sick feeling of coming woe. The air was a well-known one, but little liked in that glen.
She dropped on her knees by the wayside, and the prayers came fast; ever the piping neared her, and then round the turn of the road came the Campbells, and their piper’s fingers danced on the notes of “Bail’ lonaraora.” The woman, still on her knees, watched them come. They had the look of hunger that men feel in the fight; the blood still flushed their faces and put a strange light in their eyes; and their walk was defiant and bold. Yet here and there was one among them that had cold shame in his heart.
At sight of her they stopped, staring as at a ghost; and the leader of them, on his fine horse, swore in his beard.
"Never mind,” cried he, “‘Tis but another of the vermin MacDonalds, and a woman.”
They marched by her, and she still crossing herself, without a word. The piper even had ceased his playing, and his eyes were on the other side of the road from her. A curious slack look was on them all, as though of a sudden the spirit had gone out of them, and none looked her way. But when the troop of them were nearly past, one, a black fellow of Glen Lyon, took his dirk in his hand in a stealthy manner; she looked on the red blood that was on it, and waited with a strange calmness.
A young lad, that had tears still wet on his face, snatched at the knife, and his breath panted as he spoke, like a woman’s weeping.
“No more, Aonghais dhu, if I go on my knees to beg it!” The Glenlyon man laughed, with a sneer for the lad, and put by his dirk again. The boy looked back at her with a quiver on his face, and then his look left her, as a man turns his eyes from a pitiful thing.
Mairi watched them scatteer down the road, their green tartans fast fading into the gloom. Her eyes strained after them, as though she were in a half-dream, and striving to call back realities. Then back to her through the icy air came a sudden merry march, the notes clear and full, and the dark hills echoing. The men gathered together more compact and regular, and the magic of the tune made the long road short to them. Then she turned, and set her face, white and anxious, to her home. The wind whistled eerily, and black clouds sent the first flakes of snow. And then she came upon the Campbells’ work.
It was black ruin and horror.
The rafters lay charred on the ground, and smouldering thatch sent up the dark evil shadow; and by each darkened doorstone, and here and there among the withered tufts of heather, lay the slaughtered MacDonald clan.
It was the pitiful end of them.
Not a living soul remained of them, and the woman gasped in a sudden fright at her loneliness, there in the darkening glen. The terror of it put aside for the time her grief, and she fled shrinking to her own home. It stood apart, and she found it still as she had left it a week before, when she had set out to visit her kinsfolk in Appin. With a cry she barred the door on the dead men outside—the door that had never before in her memory been barred on friend or foe—and screamed in an agony because the bolts were stiff from long want of using, and slow to move.
A dark patch was on the floor, and her skirts dabbled in it. Then a white face, the face of her man Donal, gleamed through the dusk. There he lay, wounded and bleeding, by his| own hearth, and the sound of his weak voice brought her to a passion of tears. Her grief and her joy together were in the creeping that shook her from head to foot. Then she sank sobbing to her knees beside him, and heard his tale.
It was the old story of Campbells and treachery. The soldiers had come, friendly and kind, and had taken bite and sup with them for three days ; and on that black morning had risen on the MacDonalds, and spared none. A few, perhaps, might be hiding in the hills; but where was shelter for them in the coming storm?
The MacDonald, nearing his end, cursed the traitors, and cursed a black-bearded one of them, with shifty eyes, that had turned upon him after sharing his board. The woman sobbed, tearless now, and outside the wind moaned over the poor cold bodies.
The white snow covered Ben Dorain, and smoothed the hollows in the hills. Biting cold had sent the birds and the deer to the low grounds, and in all the white waste was but one moving thing. The woman sped down to the glen beneath, her hair streaming unheeded from beneath her plaid. Her look went to right nor left, but straight before her, and then a single roof showed black among the whiteness of the world. Before the pale sun had cast the shadows of the hills on the little croft she was knocking at the door. A child cried out inside^ and a woman’s step came hurrying.
“Come in, whoever ye are, from out the bitter cold,” she cried to the woman in the MacDonald tartan, and the open door showed a cheery peat fire and children round the board.
“There is one Aonghas dubh---------” said Mairi. But the crofter wife broke on her words.
“Come ben and take rest and sup, and seek the man to-morrow.” All the same she stared, curious, at the woman who had a quest in such weather, and at the tartan that was hostile and unfamiliar to that glen.
Mairi tossed back her hair from her white face, where it clung damply, and the look in her eyes put fear in the children, so that the youngest of them set to crying.
“Tell me where Aonghas dubh bides,” she said with hard lips and set teeth, and the housewife made no more pause.
“In the croft by the five pine trees, and it is a day’s journey in this snow.”
No more would Mairi hear, but turned down the glen, with the children peeping after her from behind their mother’s skirts.
“God pity her,” said she, thinking that there went a daft creature. “I wish she might have taken food anyway,” and she turned and pushed her weans back to the fireside.
In Glen Lyon where five pine trees shelter a corner from the North wind, was the house of Aonghas dubh. No wife nor child had he, to take the bitter hardness from him, and his neighbours had little liking for him. He lived lonely when he was not at soldier work, and this day, that was dawning grey and grim, found him working, bringing in the peats to the ben end, for he had last night returned from the soldiering, and his hearth was cheerless.
Noiseless to the window came the woman, and as she looked she loosed a man’s dirk from the fold of her gown. Her breath caught, and she saw a black mound under the snow far off in Glencoe, where four days ago she had buried her man, stark and bloody as his murderer had left him.
Inside, the black Campbell started uneasily, and a shiver came on him as of sudden cold. Then he laughed harshly, muttering to himself, “The woman’s face of Glencoe comes back strangely on the mind. It might be evil portent for Aonghas dubh.” And he laughed again.
The door opened softly; there was no wind. Campbell dropped an armful of peat, and his arms hung loose and nerveless. His face grew grey-white.
A tall woman entered, fearless, in her hand a dirk, and back to his mind of a sudden came the spaewife’s words, “A dark woman of another clan brings death from afar.”
He stood motionless, and she spoke.
“Murderer of Donal M'Iain of Glencoe! Look on his dirk that hath lain in his blood. It shall lie in your black heart this day!”
His eyes stared, and one shaking hand fumbled at his belt; but like the lightning flash she was upon him, and Aonghas dubh lay stretched on his own floor, with a MacDonald’s dirk in his breast.
She looked down on him for a moment strangely, and laughed a shaking laugh. “Better for you, Aonghas dubh, if your knife had finished my life too on that black day.”
Then she turned and made for the door.
Jean Hilary.
END
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
The attempted assassination of President Trump took the headlines this week and have to say the secret service didn't do a very good job of looking after him and neither did the other security agencies. I have highlighted a video in our news section where an eye witness saw the shooter several minutes before he shot at the President.
---------
Some major weather events around the world this week. In Chatham we seem to have avoided them as usual :-)
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
Looking back to a time when a civic movement took forward Scotland’s cause
The Scottish Covenant is 75 years old this year
Read more at:
https://jackie125.substack.com/p/loo...e-when-a-civic
Incumbent on SNP to change after election defeat, says Kate Forbes
The deputy first minister said she does not believe there needs to be a change in party leadership.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/politics/incumbe...ys-kate-forbes
Donald Trump gunman identified as 20-year-old from Pennsylvania in major update
A 20-year-old man from Pennsylvania has been identified as the suspect in the Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sut9pcNvTUs
Trump at RNC: First public appearance since assassination attempt
With a bandage on his right ear, former President Trump arrived at Day 1 of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday. It's Trump's first public appearance since the attempted assassination two days earlier at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. There, Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, killing one person and injuring two others in addition to Trump. He was then killed by Secret Service personnel.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/r48yHkoEyTM?si=pAHyJtAmwjqzTJiF
Toronto reels from floods and power cuts after severe storms
Record rainfall from three huge storms has flooded parts of Toronto, cut power and left drivers stranded on the major motorway through the city.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4ypd11wr0o
Cave discovered on moon could be home for humans
Researchers said this is the first lunar tunnel to be discovered that could be accessible to humans.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/world/cave-disco...ome-for-humans
Scotland's best culinary concoctions from haggis pakora to tablet ice cream
Haggis pakora, Irn-Bru pulled pork and the legendary Macaroni pie are some of Scotland's most genius culinary creations
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...aggis-33257982
Flypast honour for RAF Victoria Cross hero aged 104
A flypast has honoured the bravery of Britain's last surviving Victoria Cross holder for air action in World War Two, who is now aged 104. Flight Lieutenant John Cruickshank earned the honour aged 24 for an attack on a German U-boat while piloting a Catalina flying boat.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/north/catalina-f...hn-cruickshank
The King's Speech at The State Opening of Parliament 2024
King Charles delivers a speech detailing Prime Minister Keir Starmer's plans for Britain at the State Opening of Parliament.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD7PdBoN8_o
Scottish and UK Governments 'failed citizens' during Covid, inquiry finds
The UK Covid Inquiry said there was a 'damaging absence of focus' on the measures and infrastructure needed to deal with a fast-spreading disease.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/scottis...-inquiry-finds
Drone trial to deliver mail between two remote Scottish islands
The trial will see postal workers loading and unloading mail on both sides for the first time.
Read more at:
https://news.stv.tv/highlands-island...inner-hebrides
J.D. Vance addresses RNC crowd: FULL SPEECH
Donald Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, gave his first speech since he was picked for the Republican ticket. Vance discussed his humble beginnings and the importance of a Trump-Vance ticket for the future of the country.
You can watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYzXBA7zucI
Electric Canadian
Five Years Residence in the Canadas
Including a Tour through part of the United States of America in the Year 1823 by Edward Allen Talbot, Esq., of the Talbot Settlement, Upper Canada in two volumes (1824)
You can read this interesting account at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion.../fiveyears.htm
The Canadian Inspector No. 1
Containing a collection of facts concerning the Government of Sir George Prevost in the Canadas (1815) (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...Lande00092.pdf
The Canadas in 1841
By Sir Richard H. Bonnycastle, Lieutenant-colonel royal engineers, and Lieutenant-colonel in the Militia of Upper Canada in two volumes (1842)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/canadas1841.htm
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 14th day of July 2024 - Satisfaction & Contentment
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...on-contentment
The Beaver Magazine
Added Volume 1 No. 2 (1920) (pdf)
You can read this issue at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...vol1issue2.pdf
The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs
Added the 1937-38 edition
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...nual/index.htm
Canada's Part in the Great War
Issued by the Department of Public Information, Ottawa (1919) (pdf)
You can read this report at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/forc...re00cana_2.pdf
Electric Scotland
Journal of a Tour in the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland in 1800
By John Leyden, edited with a Bibliography, by James Sinton (1903) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...rinh00leyd.pdf
The Invertebrate Fauna of the Inland Waters of Scotland
Part III. By Thomas Scott, F.L.S. Loch Morar, Inverness-shire (1893) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/gardeni...naof04scot.pdf
Catalogue of Important Scottish Medals
Collected by the late R. M. Cochran-Patrick, LL.D., F.S.A., FSAScot., at one time Member of Parliament for North Ayrshire, and Under Secretary for Scotland [Sold by Order of Lady Kennedy Cochran-Patrick] to be auctioned on Tuesday, the 8th of November, 1949 (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/books/p...ttis00soth.pdf
An Index Drawn up about the Year 1629
Of many records of charters granted by the different Sovereigns of Scotland between the years 1309 and 1413, most of which records have been long missing with an Introduction giving a state, founded on authentic documents still preserved, of the Ancient Records of Scotland, which were in that Kingdom in the year 1292, to which are subjoined, indexes of the persons and places mentioned in those charters, alphabetically arranged, published at the desire of the Right Honourable Lord Frederick Campbell, Lord Clerk-Register of Scotland with a view to lead to a discovery of those records which are missing by William Robertson, Esq., one of the Deputies of the Lord Clerk-Register for keeping the records of Scotland (1798) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...abou00grea.pdf
The Scottish Mountaineering Club Guide
Ben Nevis edited by H. MacRobert (1920) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...g/bennevis.pdf
Tohoku, The Scotland of Japan
By Christopher Noss and Associates of the Tohoku Mission (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history/japan/Tohoku.pdf
Scottish Society of Louisville
Got up their June and July 2024 newsletters.
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/familyt...ille/index.htm
Robert Duncan MacIntyre
Professional Golfer
Did a feature page about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...-macintyre.htm
Reminiscences of Glasgow
And the West of Scotland by Peter MacKenzie in three volumes
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...sofglasgow.htm
Reunion
A Voice from Scotland by The Very Reverend James Cooper, D.D., D.C.L., Hon. Litt.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Glasgow; Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1917 (1918) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/r...from00coop.pdf
Scotland leads rest of UK in attracting youngsters to vital science, tech, engineering, maths (STEM) skills
Scotland's continued struggle (along with virtually the rest of the planet) to plug skills shortages in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has been given a timely boost by a group of teens who beat off stiff competition from hundreds of their peers to lift the UK's leading Junior Engineering Award. Article by Bill Magee.
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/magee/article0013.htm
Five acres and independence
A Practical Guide to the Selection and Management of the Small Farm by M. G. Kains, B.S , M.S., Special Crop Culturist, U S Department of Agriculture, Formerly Head of Horticulture Department, Pennsylvania State College, Hornculture, Agriculture and Botany Editor, New International Encyclopedia, Garden Editor Pictorial Review and other National Magazines, Lecturer on Horticulture, Columbia University, Author of Modern Guide to Successful Gardening, Plant Propagation, Principles and Practice of Pruning Culinary Herbs, etc, etc., New and Enlarged Edition. (1935) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...dence_text.pdf
A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland
Including the Isle of Man comprising an account of their geological structure with remarks on their agriculture, scenery, and antiquities by John MacCulloch, M. D. in three volumes (1819)
You can read these volumes at:
https://electricscotland.com/books/pdf/martin.htm
The history of the troubles and memorable transactions in Scotland and England
From 1624 to 1645 in two volumes by John Spalding (1827)
You can read these volumes at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...oftroubles.htm
Observations on Several Parts of Great Britain
Particularly the Highlands of Scotland relative chiefly to picturesque beauty made in the year 1776 By William Gilpin, A. M., Prebendary of Salisbury; and Vicar of Boldre in New Forest, near Lymington in two volumes (second edition) (1792) (pdf) Also including The Life of William Baker with his funeral sermon by the Rev. Mr. Gilpin (1795) (pdf) Found a new edition of this publication which is in colour and is a third edition and so have replaced the older edition with this one.
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifestyle/Gilpin.htm
Story
GLENCOE
By Levenside the frost whitened the grasses down to the water’s edge, where a thin cover of ice crackled in the tide. A cold wind was beginning to pipe through the bare bushes, and heavy snow clouds gathered on the Ardgour hills. The waters were black, and Waveless; and desolation was on all the sad countryside.
Far up the glen a thin smoke rose, uncanny. It was not the homely peat smoke that puts one in mind of warm hearthsides and friendly converse round the embers; but a black, urspy, dying thing, that hovered like evil ghosts over the ending of a wicked life. To the woman hurrying from the coming storm to her home there, the sight of it brought shuddering fear; the fear that comes even on strong men, and is stronger than the greatest of them. Mairi crossed herself, and her lips muttered the priest’s prayer; she cast a look about her as though she might see something. And then on the cold breath of the wind came a friendly and human sound—the sound of piping; but as it neared it brought little comfort to the woman. The fright left her indeed, but instead came a sick feeling of coming woe. The air was a well-known one, but little liked in that glen.
She dropped on her knees by the wayside, and the prayers came fast; ever the piping neared her, and then round the turn of the road came the Campbells, and their piper’s fingers danced on the notes of “Bail’ lonaraora.” The woman, still on her knees, watched them come. They had the look of hunger that men feel in the fight; the blood still flushed their faces and put a strange light in their eyes; and their walk was defiant and bold. Yet here and there was one among them that had cold shame in his heart.
At sight of her they stopped, staring as at a ghost; and the leader of them, on his fine horse, swore in his beard.
"Never mind,” cried he, “‘Tis but another of the vermin MacDonalds, and a woman.”
They marched by her, and she still crossing herself, without a word. The piper even had ceased his playing, and his eyes were on the other side of the road from her. A curious slack look was on them all, as though of a sudden the spirit had gone out of them, and none looked her way. But when the troop of them were nearly past, one, a black fellow of Glen Lyon, took his dirk in his hand in a stealthy manner; she looked on the red blood that was on it, and waited with a strange calmness.
A young lad, that had tears still wet on his face, snatched at the knife, and his breath panted as he spoke, like a woman’s weeping.
“No more, Aonghais dhu, if I go on my knees to beg it!” The Glenlyon man laughed, with a sneer for the lad, and put by his dirk again. The boy looked back at her with a quiver on his face, and then his look left her, as a man turns his eyes from a pitiful thing.
Mairi watched them scatteer down the road, their green tartans fast fading into the gloom. Her eyes strained after them, as though she were in a half-dream, and striving to call back realities. Then back to her through the icy air came a sudden merry march, the notes clear and full, and the dark hills echoing. The men gathered together more compact and regular, and the magic of the tune made the long road short to them. Then she turned, and set her face, white and anxious, to her home. The wind whistled eerily, and black clouds sent the first flakes of snow. And then she came upon the Campbells’ work.
It was black ruin and horror.
The rafters lay charred on the ground, and smouldering thatch sent up the dark evil shadow; and by each darkened doorstone, and here and there among the withered tufts of heather, lay the slaughtered MacDonald clan.
It was the pitiful end of them.
Not a living soul remained of them, and the woman gasped in a sudden fright at her loneliness, there in the darkening glen. The terror of it put aside for the time her grief, and she fled shrinking to her own home. It stood apart, and she found it still as she had left it a week before, when she had set out to visit her kinsfolk in Appin. With a cry she barred the door on the dead men outside—the door that had never before in her memory been barred on friend or foe—and screamed in an agony because the bolts were stiff from long want of using, and slow to move.
A dark patch was on the floor, and her skirts dabbled in it. Then a white face, the face of her man Donal, gleamed through the dusk. There he lay, wounded and bleeding, by his| own hearth, and the sound of his weak voice brought her to a passion of tears. Her grief and her joy together were in the creeping that shook her from head to foot. Then she sank sobbing to her knees beside him, and heard his tale.
It was the old story of Campbells and treachery. The soldiers had come, friendly and kind, and had taken bite and sup with them for three days ; and on that black morning had risen on the MacDonalds, and spared none. A few, perhaps, might be hiding in the hills; but where was shelter for them in the coming storm?
The MacDonald, nearing his end, cursed the traitors, and cursed a black-bearded one of them, with shifty eyes, that had turned upon him after sharing his board. The woman sobbed, tearless now, and outside the wind moaned over the poor cold bodies.
The white snow covered Ben Dorain, and smoothed the hollows in the hills. Biting cold had sent the birds and the deer to the low grounds, and in all the white waste was but one moving thing. The woman sped down to the glen beneath, her hair streaming unheeded from beneath her plaid. Her look went to right nor left, but straight before her, and then a single roof showed black among the whiteness of the world. Before the pale sun had cast the shadows of the hills on the little croft she was knocking at the door. A child cried out inside^ and a woman’s step came hurrying.
“Come in, whoever ye are, from out the bitter cold,” she cried to the woman in the MacDonald tartan, and the open door showed a cheery peat fire and children round the board.
“There is one Aonghas dubh---------” said Mairi. But the crofter wife broke on her words.
“Come ben and take rest and sup, and seek the man to-morrow.” All the same she stared, curious, at the woman who had a quest in such weather, and at the tartan that was hostile and unfamiliar to that glen.
Mairi tossed back her hair from her white face, where it clung damply, and the look in her eyes put fear in the children, so that the youngest of them set to crying.
“Tell me where Aonghas dubh bides,” she said with hard lips and set teeth, and the housewife made no more pause.
“In the croft by the five pine trees, and it is a day’s journey in this snow.”
No more would Mairi hear, but turned down the glen, with the children peeping after her from behind their mother’s skirts.
“God pity her,” said she, thinking that there went a daft creature. “I wish she might have taken food anyway,” and she turned and pushed her weans back to the fireside.
In Glen Lyon where five pine trees shelter a corner from the North wind, was the house of Aonghas dubh. No wife nor child had he, to take the bitter hardness from him, and his neighbours had little liking for him. He lived lonely when he was not at soldier work, and this day, that was dawning grey and grim, found him working, bringing in the peats to the ben end, for he had last night returned from the soldiering, and his hearth was cheerless.
Noiseless to the window came the woman, and as she looked she loosed a man’s dirk from the fold of her gown. Her breath caught, and she saw a black mound under the snow far off in Glencoe, where four days ago she had buried her man, stark and bloody as his murderer had left him.
Inside, the black Campbell started uneasily, and a shiver came on him as of sudden cold. Then he laughed harshly, muttering to himself, “The woman’s face of Glencoe comes back strangely on the mind. It might be evil portent for Aonghas dubh.” And he laughed again.
The door opened softly; there was no wind. Campbell dropped an armful of peat, and his arms hung loose and nerveless. His face grew grey-white.
A tall woman entered, fearless, in her hand a dirk, and back to his mind of a sudden came the spaewife’s words, “A dark woman of another clan brings death from afar.”
He stood motionless, and she spoke.
“Murderer of Donal M'Iain of Glencoe! Look on his dirk that hath lain in his blood. It shall lie in your black heart this day!”
His eyes stared, and one shaking hand fumbled at his belt; but like the lightning flash she was upon him, and Aonghas dubh lay stretched on his own floor, with a MacDonald’s dirk in his breast.
She looked down on him for a moment strangely, and laughed a shaking laugh. “Better for you, Aonghas dubh, if your knife had finished my life too on that black day.”
Then she turned and made for the door.
Jean Hilary.
END
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair